The comparative skinny on economic governance

Even where the handful of presidential candidates insist on a list of platform topics principally designed to accentuate their strengths against the weaknesses of their rivals, throughout, the issue of the economy is necessarily central to any debate or agenda. 

The variation on Democratic Party campaign strategist James Carville’s notorious line on the economy’s centrality and the stupidity of candidates who do not recognize its importance cannot be truer than in our neck of the global woods. Economic governance is related to their administrative skills and executive leadership. It also dwells on what matters most. More important during this viral, if not heady season of campaigning, it differentiates.

Allow us to visualize economic competence within a two-sided bracket. At one end is competence, while the far side is bounded by ineptitude. In between, we have the candidates who move fluidly between the frontrunner and the constant loser.

Economic governance lies on the far and distant end of the spectrum of platforms presented, on one end, by the constant leader of the presidential surveys, and on the opposite end, where the constant loser wallows. One bears undeniable achievements, recorded and founded on statistical and empirical data. The other, on promises of continuity kicking off from a disembodied GDP statistic on one end, but on the other, a pathetic litany of serial failures spawned from the Department of Transportation and Communications to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

Let us quickly go through those proposing a change.

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte did for Davao City what lesser competent candidates would like to do for every neighborhood where violence and criminality proliferate. Due mostly to the incompetent management of the police under the DILG, the negative impact on the business community with regard to inbound direct foreign investment is readily seen in the anemic numbers recorded in the last six years.

Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares’s economic governance remains untested. But that does not mean that her economic governance score is a zero. On the contrary, in her government stints, especially when faced with sensitive issues as that which involved colossal stupidity and cover-ups where 44 heroic lives were lost to the callous bungling of our highest officials, Llamanzares displayed rare level-headedness, leadership and empathy.

Going deeper into the statistics behind our GDP growth, we see why such has been largely unfelt and irrelevant against continuing poverty. Empathy, which only Llamanzares and one other candidate seem to possess, is that all-too-critical factor needed to translate GDP growth into one truly inclusive against the empty spin we’ve been treated with these last six years.

Vice President Jejomar Binay’s competence at economic governance is easily the most visible; that he also has that rare quality of empathy works in his favor. While he cannot be credited solely for Makati’s wealth, and, indeed, he has never made such claims, from our studied perspective it was his competent governance that directly produced inclusive domestic productivity and the improvement in services, the decrease in poverty and the overall welfare of Makati’s constituencies.

To validate, simply array Makati’s expenditures that focused on these services against similar expenditures of any other city. Make sure to adjust for per-capita expenditures and the relative girth of taxes against population figures. Such protocols are necessary so that we may not compare apples to oranges. Using neighboring Quezon City as a basis, compare the amount of taxes collected against its expenditures for its residents. Quezon City earns substantial revenues both from its numerous residential households and its high volume of retail businesses, but its poverty incidence remains higher, as the relative expenditures for services are far less.

From Duterte, to Llamanzares, and finally to Vice President Binay, the promise of change and the prospects of competent economic governance characterized by a leader who truly cares, represent a brighter tomorrow we can all look forward to.